Econet maintains market leadership

by Staff reporter

22 Oct 2017 at 13:51hrs | Views

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe maintained its leading market position with over 50% customer market share of the mobile industry, and 78% revenue market share ahead of its two main competitors, NetOne and Telecel.

According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz)'s latest industry report for the second quarter (Q2) of 2017, the mobile industry grew by 3% in the quarter (or by $5,8 million) from the first quarter (Q1), with the growth primarily driven by Econet, which contributed 69% (or $4,3 million) of the $5,8 million growth.

NetOne recorded a $1,7 million revenue growth in the quarter, while Telecel's revenue declined by $0,3 million in Q2 of 2017.Potraz releases a quarterly telecom report showing the sector's performance.

The Q2 report revealed a marginal 3% mobile growth in telecom industry dominated by the three mobile network operators Econet, NetOne and Telecel. Both NetOne and, recently Telecel, are now controlled by the government following Telecel's 60% takeover by the government through its state-owned entity Zarnet.

Zarnet paid $30 million for Telecel through a deal facilitated by the National Social Security Authority, which made the payment on its behalf to Netherlands-based VimpelCom, which controlled a majority stake in Telecel.

The Potraz report showed that Econet recorded a revenue market share of 78% in the second quarter, a revenue growth of 27% (or $30m) in comparison to the same period (Q2) in the prior year of 2016.

However, NetOne recorded marginal growth in revenue market share quarter-on-quarter (from Q1 to Q2 of 2017) of half a percentage point (0,5%), to close Q2 at 14%, up from 13,5% in Q1. This was at the expense of Telecel, which suffered a revenue market share drop of 0,4%, from 8,5% share in Q1, down to 8,1% in Q2.

Econet grew its share of customers from 49,2% in Q1 of 2017, to 50,2% share of the total mobile market.

The EcoCash mobile transacting platform continued to enjoy a 98% share of the market.

On the data front, the report revealed a total, industry, quarter-on-quarter mobile data traffic growth of 15,8%, or a 352 Terabyte (TB) growth, driven by a 16% growth (or 315 TB) in traffic by Econet Wireless.

NetOne's data traffic declined quarter-on-quarter by 1% (or 6 TB) in Q2 of 2017, while Telecel recorded a data traffic increase of 43 TB in the second quarter of 2017.